Neville Wran: former New South Wales premier dies aged 87 (ABC)

Former New South Wales premier Neville Wran has died. He was 87.

A statement from his family said he died shortly before 6:00pm (AEST).

Wran, who led the Labor government in NSW from May 1976 to July 1986, had been suffering from dementia and was under special care for the past two years.

"This is of course a very sad time for us all, but in fact a blessed release for Neville," his wife Jill Hickson said in a statement.

"Dementia is a cruel fate and I have been grieving the loss that comes with it for some years.

"But I hope now, especially in this political climate, people will join me in celebrating the life of a great man, a true political hero."

Premier Mike Baird said he was "deeply saddened" to learn of Wran's death.

"In the 1970s and 1980s, Mr Wran was a towering figure in the NSW Labor Party and in the state," Mr Baird said in a statement.

"His legacy is positive and lasting."

The NSW Government will offer the Wran family a state funeral.

Bob Carr, the only person to continuously lead New South Wales for longer than Wran, says he learnt a lot from the Labor icon.

"We all took things from his leadership, his quips, his observations. His insights were impossible to forget, they just flavoured our time in politics," Mr Carr said.

"To be in his cabinet was to have the mightiest education in the nature of politics one could wish."

Working-class boy from Balmain

The so-called Wranslides of the late 1970s and early 1980s delivered Wran a record run in New South Wales politics.

Wran was a boy from working-class Balmain who forged a lucrative career as a barrister, earning the nickname Nifty.

He was 43 when he took a seat in the Upper House of Parliament in 1970, before entering the Lower House as the member for Bass Hill three years later.

In 1976 Wran led the ALP to a cliffhanger win before two years later recording the biggest victory in New South Wales election history with a primary vote of almost 58 per cent.

Again in 1981 he thumped the Coalition thanks to a massive personal approval rating, and was even spoken of as a potential prime minister.

His government did endure many controversies including blackouts, the first strike of public servants in 80 years, and persistent allegations of corruption in the police, the judiciary and the Parliament.

It culminated with a Four Corners story in 1983 that alleged Wran attempted to interfere in a court case.

It was then that Wran famously told a Labor Party conference "Balmain boys don't cry". However, he added: "But if you prick us with a pin we bleed like anyone else."

Wran was exonerated by a royal commission but his relationship with the media was forever soured.

He went on to win the 1984 state election but with a much reduced margin.  

Despite his fading electoral fortunes, Wran shocked his supporters when he resigned in 1986, never having lost an election, or even a by-election, in his 13 years as leader.

His legacy includes introducing Lotto, rate-pegging for councils, random breath testing, the Land and Environment Court, and laws allowing homosexual acts between consenting adults.

He also triggered the redevelopment of Darling Harbour and built the Entertainment Centre, but Wran once named his proudest achievement as creating national parks.

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